Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to an apparatus and method for maximizing the number of computing resources that fit within a computer rack. More specifically, the present invention provides for the easy expansion of a computer system by increasing the number of computing resources that reside in an enclosure.
Description of the Related Art
Computing systems in the data center today are frequently provided within server blades (e.g. node blades) that fit into a computer rack. Typically or server blades contain a plurality of devices. Each server blade may be connected cables or internal backplanes that interconnect different devices in a computer rack. These server blades come in standard form factors of depth, a width and a height. When a conventional server blade is installed in a computer rack, it consumes the entire depth, width, and height of a server blade. In order to expand or change functionality provided by a particular server blade, that particular server blade has to be removed from the computer rack and may have to be opened up such that additional components may be installed.
Typically when the functionality of a server blade in a computing rack is augmented, the operation of the computer rack is disturbed. This often requires an entire computer rack to be powered down before the functionality of server blade within the computer rack can be changed. One reason why electronic components computer racks need to be shut down before their functionality can be changed is because one or more of the interconnects associated with the server blade include delicate electronic circuits that may be damaged when contacts leading to the delicate electronic circuits if those contacts are hot plugged (i.e. plugged in or unplugged when power is applied).
When the functionality of the data center is disturbed, the overall computing power available for use by users is reduced, and operations performed by the computers in the data center take longer to complete. As such, by turning off a computer rack, the cost of running the data center increases.
What is needed are apparatus and methods that allow the functionality of a computer rack to be increased by minimizing any disruption of the operation of the data center when compute resources are added to a computer rack in the data center.